cover-shame

English

Etymology

• cover +‎ shame

Noun

cover-shame (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Something used to conceal infamy.
   • 1659, Edmund Gayton, chapter 31, in The Art of Longevity‎^[1]:

     Give place then exprobrating fruit, and come / Thou Cover-shame, old Fig-tree, in the Room: / Though men of all the fruit, that hangs o'th' tree, / Should love none less for your obscurity

   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Friar, act 3, scene 2; republished in The Works of John Dryden‎^[2], volume 6, Edinburgh: Archibold Constable and Co., 1821, page 428:

     O impudence! O rogue! O villain! Nay, if he be such a man, my righteous spirit rises at him! Does he put on holy garments, for a cover-shame of lewdness?

   • 1838, Richard Sibbes, chapter 25, in The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax, page 122:

     If this were believed, men would make more account of sincerity, which will only give us boldness, and not seek for cover-shames; the confidence whereof, as it maketh men now more presumptuous, so it will expose them hereafter to the greater shame.

2. A plant, savin (Juniperus sabina), which was historically used as both a contraceptive and to induce abortions.

Related terms

• cover-slut